Onkyo DP-X1 Digital Audio Player

I rate it 5 stars not because it's perfect but for the money it's a deal. Not to many bad but I was surprised this didn't have a speaker like the single DAC model made by Pioneer. Also, it doesn't contain information on how to use the balanced output. After much research I had to buy an $85 cable and a special connector that needs to be attached to a modified headphone. There are no such thing as balanced headphones that can plug into the unit, at least that I can find. The included player is not that good because seems it wanted me to select one of Onkyo's earphone and couldn't select none, then later somehow, "other" showed up so chose that then I could use it but the user interface is poor. Then when I went to use it again the earphone menu showed up again and the "other" was missing so just chose a random Onkyo earphone. The player then locked up and had to reset the device. After resetting the player worked ok. I downloaded HiBy so I use that player so the included player is not a real issue but unless you get the right DSD player most free ones won't play DSD. So regular output works fine and no problems and plays DSD well with excellent audio. Most my stuff is FLAC which sounds about as good as DSD. The player handles over 400 megs and is the primary reason why I got this as all my audio is FLAC and DSD HD. Also another great feature is it is Android 5.1 and obviously supports thousands of apps from the Play Store. But I also have lots of movies and t.v. shows stored so and they all play great and sound good also. I have tons of photos also. I wish this had a camera and gps. The wifi works excellently and all my apps on my other Pioneer XDP 100R transferred fine without any effort. Obviously this is good for traveling as I can watch movies and listen to HD music or play games, etc. To take advantage of the dual DACs however you need to have balanced headphones configured. I am new to this balanced stuff and still learning but it seems from what I read there are balanced headphones for sale somewhere but super expensive, much cheaper to buy headphones then mod yourself, so that's what I will do, but Onkyo should have at least provided the 2.5mm adapter and have instructions on how to wire it up. You are not going to find a better DSD player at this price and even the super expensive ones don't support this much memory. This will upscale MP3 and lower resolution but I don't need to because I only have HD loaded. I haven't tried MQA format as haven't seen any and not sure if the software is ready for updating. The unit has fairly sharp edges which would hold better if rounded like phones. It is heavy on purpose though as the metal case is used for shielding and heat sinking. I had to use DSD download service from Europe because I was in Hawaii and when I tried to download and pay with paypal for a U.S. DSD provider it said I was in a foreign country so cannot download and pay from this service. So that ended that and went straight to Nativedsd.com and haven't looked back. They are an excellent DSD provider and reliable and no problems with downloads. The music I listen to is strictly classical so I am picky on how music sounds obviously. They have lots of unique versions of classical pieces which I don't have in my traditional collection. Transferring the music is a no brainer and haven't used their PC interface because I can just put the micro SD card in my computer and copy right over, very fast especially if you got to transfer several gigabytes. Battery life seems good and much shorter however if you are watching movies. I have lots of music videos I ripped from DVDs also and all work fine. For the money this has all the others beat. My previous one I bought before I learned about this was the Hifiman dsd player and it was totally garbage and returned it. I would prefer Burr Brown DACs but you can't have everything for this price. The ones with Burr Brown DACs can't compete with the value this has.

My experience is coming from iPad 4 and 5 and Cowen that reads FLAC files. Far and away, it is superior in sound quality with Bose QC 15 and Etymotics ear buds to any portable music source I've experienced. I'm sure that it sounds even better with higher-quality earpieces. I can even detect an improvement in low/medium-res MP3 files over listening on the iPhone and Cowon. I recently purchased a DSD version of M. Jackson's Thriller, and I could hear instruments and riffs I've never heard before. Summary: from my prior experience, this is far and away the best media player in its price range. The A&K, Pioneer and others were rated lower in the A/V publications, so I'm happy with the purchase for sound quality alone - EXCELLENT I've taken some time loading files onto 2 200GB SanDisk storage in the 2 open slots. Using the X-DAP software, it works ok, but is a little awkward. Once you get the hang of the interface, and it copies pretty easily and quickly even on a USB 2.0 link. It seems to want to try to re-load files that you've transferred before, but as others have said, it ignores duplicates. Even loading several GBs of AIFF and FLAC files at a time, it plowed through them in a reasonable duration. I'm starting to work through playlists from scratch, and that is time consuming and not streamlined or particularly enjoyable. If possible, I hope to figure out how to transfer playlists from iTunes to avoid the drudgery of creating them from scratch. I also understand that there may be limitations in searching and grouping files across the 3 storage media (internal, and 2 SD slots for 400+GB). My current collections will not bump up against that limit any time soon unless I start to purchase DSD versions exclusively. Summary: X-DAP is ok, but immature and needs to flesh out both features and "how to" documentation. It is more than adequate to load data, but not close in quality to the playback features. - FAIR/GOOD. The Android interface is fine and from what I've read, appears to be better than the competition. I am not a big Android user (IOS and Windows 10 mostly on devices), but it's familiar and seems pretty complete, at least for an inexperienced user. While I would not use this as a primary all-inclusive device outside of the music playback functions, it seems pretty good as a basic Android platform. I would also say that having to purchase SD cards does make the DP-X1 more expensive in practice, as the 32GB internal storage is minimal for a collection of any size. Summary: The Android platform and storage expandability are generally positive features in spite of jacking the price up with SanDisk SD cards - GOOD My learning to use the DP-X1 is still a work in progress, and I'll provide additional feedback when I have it. I'm not experiencing loose headphone jacks or loss of music files as others have reported, and the quality of the device appears to be very high. I have no current regrets about purchasing it and mostly agree with the positive feedback that most have provided, both A/V magazine writers and users like myself. Summary: Recommend purchase if you want an affordable, portable device with large capacity and excellent sound quality - VERY GOOD

Bought my DP-X1 on November 8, 2016 and the first issue within the first two months was the battery not holding full charge (it says its 100% but it drains within day), so I bought an Anker charger which solved the battery charging issue. After a few months of using the DP-X1 with a headphone, the 3.5 phone jack became loose, google it and found a lot of other people had complained regarding poor quality on the jack, and so I put some glue on the rim of the jack to make it sturdy, that helped a lot. Fast forward to May, 2021 and all of a sudden, the 3.5 phone jack is NOT working properly anymore, the audio is only one channel and NO bass, just treble. For reference, (refer to photos attached with 3.5-3.5mm jack that are permanently put in placed) after my first issue with the jack, I had made it to a point NOT to remove ON-OFF the phone jack to PRESERVE it from wear and tear and yet here I am with the phone jack failing. I called the Amazon Seller who sold me the device which wonderfully replied to me within 2 hours - but sadly, they dont service the unit. I called ONKYO USA, but they DONT service the unit either (WOW, a $800 unit, top of the line DAC) and they dont offer customer service and instead told me to contact ONKYO JAPAN thru email - its been a week already and no reply and as I try to find ways to fix this unit, googling had shown multiple forum posts that ONKYO dont really care about their customers and that the DP-X1 is one of those unit that clients dont hear back from ONKYO customer service. As it turns out, the phone jack is soldered to the board and the failure point seems to be the both the 3.5m and 2.5mm balance output jacks - people had complained that the failure rate of these are very HIGH - which is SAD for a $800 unit. SO IM writing this review to inform potential buyers of ONKYO products, especially high end units - if you think you're paying high price for quality - there's NO QUALITY at ALL and definitely the CUSTOMER SERVICE is non existent. I DO LOVE THE AUDIO QUALITY with the EQUALIZER though - but that no good at the moment since the audio jacks are not working.

BIGGEST PROS: - Excellent sound quality (balanced mode is noticeably better, but even the regular 3.5mm jack works great, too) - Zippy performance (little lag relative to others I've had, even when updating a good-sized library) - Good display - with functions for both touch screen and hardware buttons available - Expandable memory with two SDXC slots of 200Gb (some posters say bigger cards may be possible, but I haven't tried. - Lots of features: (Android apps, file types supported, balanced mode, dual DAC's, WiFi, Bluetooth etc.) BIGGEST CONS: - Battery life is nothing to write home about, but it re-charges fairly quickly - Setting an external memory card into the play-able music libraries a little fussy at first, but works well after that. Can see folders, shuffle across data sources, and find metadata seamlessly) Overall a 'PRO' I guess. - Physical design is just a bit on the clunky side - Easy to bump the volume knob, which displays a volume curve over the album art OTHER: - The BEST feature is WiFi - this is the best device for streaming Spotify that I've found. - Even Amazon Prime Music sounds great on this device. It's like having a new music library. - Amazon sells a 2.5mm cable that lets you use balanced mode with "normal" earphones - I've tried Onkyo HF music player app, foobar2000 and PowerAmp - PowerAmp wins hands down. Sounds great. - X-DAP Link (Onkyo's PC interface software) was a bit clunky, and the "English" download was trial and error as it came in Japanese or something. I had to search on-line for a version that came in English so I knew what buttons to click. Turns out it's not needed to transfer files because you can just use the DAP as an external hard drive and drag and drop files. - I used EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to rip FLAC files from my favorite CD's, and the sound quality is much better than iTunes/iPods can provide.

ok some history,,,short i have weston wd 60's sure 846's astell kern layla's bower and wilkins c10's tube amp's bluetooth speakers worth well over a thousand dollars thodio x two so i am not a pro but i know what i like .bluetooth signal was on a scale of one too ten maybe a weak 5.sound quality about as good as my phone balance played a little too the left..thought it was my layla's but i plugged them into my phone and they played fine. this co made a great player for just getting started.amps or power this thing can make your ears pop no complaints their but here's a hint call a cell phone manufacturer and see what they use for a bluetooth signal cause yours sucks (sorry).and the most that makes me pissed i don't want too watch movies on my player i don't want to serf the web or youtube i don't need too send emails or download solitaire.here's a clue i bought this to hear music.....i have a phone for the rest...astell an kerns sounded way better but their blutooth was sub par very weak i wish my 18 month old ibasso had bluetooth i would be happy . I sent this back since i already had a player just like this one sounds just as good and i can call people on it . go back and put all your time into making just a great music player.if they do that i'll beat down their door too have one.....

This player has just about every feature that you can get from the best players. However the software is not ready. It is clunky & hard to use. The Player would not load my several micro SD cards for over thirty minutes every time I booted up. During my brief moments when I could play my Apple Lossless files the sound was superb. I returned the unit & will buy again when the software is ready for folks who are used to the smooth Apple experience. Until then I will use my iPhone with a Chord Mojo DAC/Amp which is a 5 star product.

If the sound output at the 2.5 jack worked perfectly, this would be a five-star review. This is the best portable sound unit I've owned and it holds more than 400 GB of music. It worked great on March 12, when I bought it and now the balanced sound portal is squishy and music cuts out at the slightest movement. I see in other reviews the seller says this has been fixed. Not in my case. What can I do? Also, like a fool, I recently threw out the original packaging, thinking I had found my portable player nirvana. Can I return it without it? Will the company fix it? I was loving it for six months, but losing sound is really irksome. Anyone have suggestions? I see others have had the same problem. Thanks....update: Jan 13, 2018. I should have returned this before 30 days to have it fixed...but I was busy and thought it might get better. It's only gotten worse. I got an answer from the seller, telling me to send it to Onkyo for a repair. Thoughts? UPDATE: OK. So, I promised I would update if they fixed it. It was a hassle, but I have to say the people at JMade did their best. I sent it first to a US Onkyo authorized repair place. They refused to service it. $30 in shipping out. Then, JMADE said they would take care of it, so I shipped it to them in Japan. They sent it to Onkyo and Voila, it works as good as new. Pshew. Here's a funny aside, in case anyone else has this problem. When I got it back, it was set to Japanese...and it was set so that the screen needed two fingers to scroll. So, not reading Japanese, I kind of figured my way around, but couldn't get it to scroll to English. It would scroll as far down as an Indonesian dialect that starts with a B. Well, after hours of my own incompetence, and thinking I had to send it back again, I finally figured out i needed to scroll it with two fingers...and finally got to English and fixed the touch screen by pressing magnify. Sad to admit, this took about four hours to figure. But..now, I can say this unit is a gem, despite the bad workmanship on the 2.5 jack. It has so many variables but the sound is really great in balanced or regular. I use it now mostly with a Questyle 400i DAC and Amp, which is really deep and rich. Without that amp, it's still a great sound, but lighter and with a clean soundstage. With it, it's rich and deep. I use it with Mr Speakers Ether Flow C headphones, which it drives fine. Also with Westone 4 IEMs. In my frustration, I almost gave up and bought a H&K KANN because of its storage capacity...but I am now very happy with my Onkyo. And J Made was very good to deal with, even if it took some time and shipping money. I still paid half what the KANN would have cost. I'm using two 200 GB sd cards, but may switch to 256. I have a lot of music and a lot in hi def. Pluses: Largest storage for the price Great variables: you can buy Onkyo music directly with it. You can use it on wifi or bluetooth; As a portable, it really does a lot of jobs. Or use it for storage through another amp, if you want. Nice screen with album cover art. Balanced or regular outputs. Balanced is simply wonderful MINUSES The complaints about the workmanship are true. My 2.5 output was bad from the minute I got it. It cut out, but I lived with it, until it completely fell into the unit. Luckily, Onkyo fixed it promptly when I got it to Japan. I have a Sony walkman for backup, so I didn't lose music, but it's pretty frustrating to go through that. Battery life isn't great. I'm getting like six hours, even with everything shut off. It's pretty complicated and has a big learning curve. Sure, you can just do the basics and it's as simple as an iPod, but once you want to get deeper into it, it takes some time. The online manual has helped a lot. So, now that it's fixed, I up my rating from a zero to a 5. I'm happy with it. At some point I may go for something that has even more storage, but this will work until the units that hold terrabytes come out.

I heard about these high end "Digital Audio Players" and I wanted to see if they live up to the hype. After quite a bit of research, I decided that getting this player used for around $300 would be a good price point to dip my toes. I have now owned this player for a few years and the results have been pretty great over all. Pros: Dual SD card slots - this led me to fill them with 2x256gb cards controls - It's nice to not have to look at the device to do most things. Sound quality - I play everything from flac to mp3's and even DSD and high quality files. You'd be surprised how good some older albums can sound. I didn't realize that Disturbed was done so well. Balanced 2.5mm connection - This was new to me but I gave it a try and it was nice. Bluetooth - If you're buying this player to play audio over Bluetooth, don't... Use your phone. I do like being able to transfer music files in a pinch though. Android - Allows the use of many Android apps. We sometimes use Spotify. Bad: Glitches - This happened only a hand full of times (Maybe 15% of total play time). This might be due to the ancient version of Android. The player would flat out stop outputting audio or behaving strange. This has led me to purchase a Fiio M11 Plus. Lack of cases - if they exist, I had trouble locating them so I had to treat it very nicely. Battery life - Seems short but easily fixable with an external USB Battery Microusb - In a world of type c, the time has come Over all, if you have a really nice set of headphones laying around, and you feel like something is missing, you are right. I had this paired with a pair of SENNHEISER HD 559's and even when the wife and I listened through a splitter, this device was powerful enough to power them. Just don't expect any updates from Onkyo. Also, this player led to me purchasing LG phones with a nice DAC in them. spending money leads to spending more money.